Catholic World News: Analysis- Vatican issues strong response to Irish criticism

Catholic World News prints a solid, unsigned article analyzing the content of the Holy See's formal response to the Cloyne report, as well as press and government reactions to it. In part:

The Vatican’s 15-page report, officially presented to Irish officials both in Dublin and in Rome, indicated that the Holy See is “ashamed for the terrible sufferings which the victims of abuse and their families have had to endure within the Church of Jesus Christ, a place where this should never happen.” That suffering, the document observed, was attributable to “grave failures in the ecclesiastical governance of the diocese.”

However, in measured yet clear diplomatic language, the Vatican expressed clear unhappiness over public statements by Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny and other government officials who had suggested that the Vatican had interfered with efforts to address the abuse scandal.

For example, regarding a much-discussed 1997 message from the Congregation for the Clergy, expressing concerns about policies proposed by the Irish hierarchy, the Vatican response pointed out that the message was a response to a request for guidance from the Irish bishops: “The congregation offered advice to the bishops with a view to ensuring that the measures which they intended to apply would prove effective and unproblematic from a canonical perspective.” The Vatican had never rejected the Irish bishops’ policies, the response noted, because in fact the Irish hierarchy had never submitted those policies for approval. Moreover, individual bishops were free to implement those policies within their own dioceses, as their own discretion.

In stronger terms the Holy See rejected suggestions that the Vatican had encouraged Irish bishops to frustrate law-enforcement investigations.

[. . .]

Although the statement was couched in respectful and even conciliatory language, the content clearly conveyed the dismay of Vatican officials over the angry denunciations that government leaders had directed at Rome. An Irish Times report conveyed the force of the Vatican’s careful response to Kenny’s highly public criticism: “Rarely in the field of diplomatic exchanges has a taoiseach received so loud a raspberry from such a moral high ground.” An editorial in the Irish Catholic observed that the response, with its call for a clarification of the Irish leader’s remarks, was an embarrassment to Kenny and his government, since it exposed the fact that Kenny had no factual basis for his tirade against Rome. Commentator David Quinn made a similar point in a Vatican Radio interview, pointing out that although they charged the Vatican had encouraged violation of Irish laws, Kenny and his allies could not point to any law that had been undermined.

[. . .]

Government leaders, meanwhile, refused to temper their criticism in the light of the Vatican response. A spokesman for Enda Kenny indicated that the Taoiseach was not likely to retract or even amend his public criticism of the Holy See.

In more extended remarks, foreign minister Eamon Gilmore said that the Vatican response was a promising start to a needed dialogue, and said that he hoped to “build on this.” But he objected to the “very technical and legalistic” nature of the Vatican’s point-by-point response.

Clearly indicating that the Irish government hopes to capitalize on public outrage without delving into the details of alleged Vatican involvement, Gilmore said that sexual abuse is “such a heinous and reprehensible crime, that issues about the precise status of documents should not be allowed to obscure the obligation of people in positions of responsibility to deal promptly with such abuse and report it.”